28 April 2019, The Tablet

Sri Lanka Catholics celebrate Mass by TV


Churches were closed for the weekend after the church and hotel bombings over Easter


Sri Lanka Catholics celebrate Mass by TV

Security forces are seen on 27.4 outside St. Anthony's Church, one of the targets in a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels on Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Xinhua/A. Hapuarachchi

The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Randith, has celebrated Mass for Catholics in Sri Lanka from a small, private chapel at his home. 

Churches were closed for the weekend after the church and hotel bombings over Easter in which more than 250 people were killed. More people died, including six children and three women, when Islamist militants blew themselves up in a police raid on Friday.

Today's Mass was broadcast by television to Catholics in their own homes instead. Other priests were also present, along with political leaders including President Maithripala Sirisena, prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Cardinal Randith said his homily: "This is a time our hearts are tested by the great destruction that took place last Sunday. This is a time questions such as, does God truly love us, does he have compassion towards us, can arise in human hearts."

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Dozens of suspects have been arrested. 

Meanwhile in the United States, a 19-year-old man, John Earnest, has been arrested and is in custody after one person was killed and more injured in a shooting at a synagogue in San Diego.

The shooting on the last day of Passover was at Congregation Chabad in Poway.

President Donald Trump, at the White House, said yesterday: "At this moment it looks like a hate crime, but my deepest sympathies to all of those affected and we'll get to the bottom of it."


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